inam ul rehman
On February 12, traders from various markets in the city centre organised a press conference. They expressed concern over the slow pace of smart city works, encroachment of roads, and lack of parking facilities for the business community. Genuine concerns.
The Srinagar Smart city project started in 2018, but accumulated pace in 2022. Its first deadline was set in December 2023, but as we know deadlines are just a number which are always tossed around here. 
Had Kashmir’s largest circulated English daily, Greater Kashmir, not advocated for Srinagar smart city project this project would have lumbered on like the fate of most projects in Jammu and Kashmir. Most projects under the smart city in and around Lal Chowk and old city would have not been completed if the GK had not highlighted it daily. Every day it would publish a story about the smart city project. If not a story, a picture of an incomplete project would be there on its city page. On some days it would publish two stories and separate picture of incomplete works.
Its reporting kept foot on the slow bureaucratic pedestal to accelerate the process. Things moved. Major projects of Lal Chowk were completed and thrown open to the public. As days passed by the GK tackled issues of sluggish pace, traffic jams, defunct lighting, encroachments of the roads head on.
GK’s advocacy extends to another critical issue: elderly health. It has taken a commendable initiative in highlighting the plight of senior citizens, emphasizing the need for improved geriatric care, better healthcare facilities, and awareness about abuse and neglect that elderly face in our part. Earlier, people here would deny elderly population face such problems citing Islam and strong social network preventing it!
These advocacy efforts on elderly well-being remind us of the indispensable role a mainstream newspaper can play even in an era of social media blitz.
All this GK did when its manpower shrunk, its finances curtailed, a few power centres tried to bring it down. In spite of these challenges it continued to maintain a professional standard. It survived one of the darkest phase of its career on its own. 
If GK could take more such issues the pitiable condition of the people of Jammu and Kashmir would immensely benefit from it.
For years, I was one of the vocal critics of this paper. Slowly it started to dawn on me that this newspaper was being held guilty for all the ills pervading in Jammu and Kashmir. An unfair accusation. GK is in the business of news, not in ideologies. Those who are looking for ideologies should open their own propaganda newspapers.
We, in Kashmir, love to see people fall down and condemn them for the rest of their lives. After they die we lament we couldn’t help him! It is a cyclic thing here.
Thank you, GK, for taking up people’s issues. Thank you for upholding our trust. And, importantly thank you for surviving the blitzkrieg.
The differences will remain, but the journey should not stop.
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